im glad my hard drive is loud....

So, there's too much noise in your box, so you're gonna put a rubber around your Hard Drive to quiet it down?  

Someone else mentioned that the WD drives seem to squeal more when they're hotter. See if it changes when you put a fan blowing right on it. (not that that's a good permanent solution.)

I also saw some kind of hard drive enclosure reviewed on THG, where the whole drive fit inside a sealed metal box, but was thermally connected to the outside through the box's thick metal. It dampened all noise from the drive, and the drive still stayed cool enough for long term operation.

I'd find you a link, but I'm too busy laughing because I've got this mental picture of someone putting a condom over a hard drive... hee hee

well, I have a WD 180Gz HD (was $100 after rebates, could not pass by even I knew it will be a squealing beast), but I'm using it as a backup thing once in a while and it sits in the enclosed case, so I do not hear it really much at all. But if you have it as a system drive, you are stuck with it, and don't even think about putting it into the rubber thingy, it will heat it up so much that the rubber will melt, burn and HD will die of suffocation from rubber smoke  

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

There are several sites dedicated to quiet PCs, do a google search and I'm sure they will turn up. Most of them have "rubber-like" sheets you can buy to attach to the inside of your case. They also have vibration/noise dampening HDD mounts.

I have never used any of these things so I can't testify to their usefullness. If you wind up getting some it would be nice to get a report on them.

....WW (4.0)